GARDAÍ WORKING IN Dublin on Halloween night were told to not enter a housing estate because of health and safety concerns that stolen cars would be used to knock them down.

The Croftwood area of Cherry Orchard near Ballyfermot was the scene of serious disorder on Saturday as groups of youths brought as many as seven stolen cars into the area in an apparent celebration. Sources have said the chaos began at approximately 6pm.

There were also fireworks and a bonfire. The vehicles were then used by the youths to “rally” around the area and were also involved in ramming the cars into each other. 

All the stolen cars were set alight in a shocking frenzy of violence and chaos.  

Sources have said there was developed intelligence, from concerned locals, that the youths planned to draw in gardaí so they could be ambushed with fireworks. 

The garda public order unit were waiting and were ready to go in to clear the area, but a decision was taken by senior garda operational commanders not to deploy them because they feared a number of gardaí would be severely injured. 

“It was an incredibly difficult situation for the decision makers. The call was: do you deploy the public order unit and then have those gardaí being under threat by stolen cars being driven at them,” a senior source said. 

In other operational quarters inside An Garda Síochána, there were widespread concerns that not confronting the youths would set a difficult precedent to gain back control. 

It is understood that gardaí did deploy into the estate on Saturday night when it was judged to be safe to support Dublin Fire Brigade. At that stage the cars had been burned out. 

A still from a video circulating on social media of two stolen cars burning in Croftwood, Cherry Orchard on Saturday night.

Past history of violence

The violence is nothing new in the area. Experienced sources we spoke to about policing the area referenced the incidents in 1995 Halloween riot in Gallanstown and said that there were concerns that it would be repeated. 

On that occasion gardaí were attacked with petrol bombs and several people were seriously injured.

There have also been serious ramming incidents of garda cars in the area and injuries to gardaí when they were struck with missiles in recent years. 

Community leaders

Councillor Daithí Doolan is a local Sinn Féin activist in the area and explained that past history has informed the approach by community leaders to reduce violence – that was hampered this year. 

Doolan said there is a difficult “reality” for the community. He said the only way to prevent violence is to have a very organised approach to managing events.

“We have learned from our experience over the last 10 to 20 years that to reduce the violence, the serious trauma being inflicted on communities, you work closely with the guards, youth services, community services in the build-up to Halloween.

“It’s the build-up, that’s when you need to work together to reduce the harm and to provide very positive, family-friendly alternatives,” he said. 

Doolan said that one of the key measures undertaken in Cherry Orchard by community leaders is to organise an official fireworks display. This is also undertaken across the country in other communities where issues have been identified at Halloween. 

In the build-up to Halloween this year there were events like fun runs and a family day. However, Doolan said on Thursday there was bad news for the community as they were informed that the fireworks event was cancelled. 

He said he and other community workers were shocked at the short notice of the cancellation because no issues were identified beforehand. 

A woman walks past the remanants of one of the bonfires lit near houses in Cherry Orchard. Rollingnews.ie Rollingnews.ie

‘We knew there was going to be problems’

Doolan said it is his belief that a work-to-rule industrial action by public servants in a pay dispute with the government, particularly gardaí and council workers, meant there was no way to staff the event. 

“Once that decision was made unilaterally, we knew there was going to be problems.

“That’s the reality of life in some of our communities, and you have to respond to that reality, and we worked closely with community projects, gardaí at a senior level, and with Dublin City Council at a senior level into Friday evening to try and pull it back from the edge. But we couldn’t do it,” he added. 

Doolan believes that it is positive that it did not spread beyond Croftwood into other communities in Cherry Orchard. 

He paid tribute to the residents who performed a clean-up of the debris from the burned out cars and other detritus of the unrest the night before.

“They were the first responders on Sunday, removing, cleaning up all that debris, and my lesson from it is this: we can never let a repeat of Saturday take place again,” he added.